Connor

Sorry it took so long for me to get this posted.

Connor Louis Thompson arrived on Election Day. I wonder what this means. :)

He was 9lbs 12.5 oz and 21.5 inches long.
He is a great sleeper and I get a stretch of about 5 hours a night.

I Am Still Here

I am still alive. I have been redoing the kitchen in order to stay busy until Connor comes. I was having contractions this morning, But they stopped and I am continuing on my project lest I go crazy! We are scheduled for induction on Thursday. I just need to stay busy so the time passes quickly.

I will post pictures of the kitchen when it is done. What started out as new handles for the doors and drawers has turned into new stain color, a tile back splash and some other finishing touches. The kitchen has a much warmer feel now and is a bit more rustic.

I have also, with the help of my mom, gotten the laundry room all cleaned out and organized. We could not have done this project if the tools had not been organized.

I will let you all know when we have baby Connor in our arms.
I still need to post about the Fiesta. I will do this when I get the camera hooked up and pictures downloaded.

Growing Up

I was going to write about this past weekend. The Fiesta was really fun and I can't wait to do it again. I will try to post some pictures this week.
As I said I was going to write about this weekend, but something happened at dinner that is much more significant.
My greatest prayer for the boys and Addi is that they will come love God and serve his purposes for their lives. Spencer is one step closer. He is growing up and starting to understand some of the basic things that we do to thank God such as praying and thanking God for our food before we eat.
Tonight I fed the kids before Darrin got home and totally missed praying with them before they ate. When Darrin sat down to eat his dinner Spencer climbed up in the chair next to Darrin and the conversation went like this:

S (with folded hands): Pause, Pause
D: you want to pray?
S: Pray.
D: o.k. go ahead.
S: I would like...
Humpty dumpty sat on the wall
Humpty dumpty had a great fall
All the kings horses and all the kings men
Could not put Humpty together again.
D: laughing so hard tears were running down his face.

I always love hearing what other little kids say. I waited for the day that fun things came out of my kids mouths. Tonight was well worth waiting for.

Fiesta

Well, I did it. I set a date for our Celebration. It is going to be on October 4th from 4-7pm. Please come and join us if you would like.

So much has happened over the past year and our family continues to grow and change. We have left one segment and are starting another. The kids are thriving and I am keeping up with the housework and laundry. Life is at a steady pace and will shortly be thrown into chaos again when Connor makes his appearance.

Our Fiesta on the 4th is to say thank you to all of you who have invested in us, prayed for us and encouraged us over the past few years. The journey has not been easy, but I would not trade the lessons I have learned for an easier road. I am trying to get invitations out to all of you, but please forgive my baby brain if I forget someone. Please come anyway. It will be at our house and we would love to thank all of you.

So consider all of yourselves invited. It will be a fun time and I am looking forward to hosting. It has been a long time.

New Companions on our Journey

It has been a very interesting week. It started our by doing an ATEC score sheet for Taylor. This is the sheet that we do to see how he is progressing with the treatment that we are doing. He did not move on the scale, but for the first time I saw improvement when the ATEC did not. Taylor has settled down. He is concentrating better and playing better with other children.

I was a bit discouraged by the ATEC score because I had seen improvement, but after last night I am not relying on the score so much anymore. We still need to use it because it does give us some guidelines to see how the treatment is working.

Last night Darrin and I got to talk one on one with our new companions on this journey. Spencer's teacher Mrs. Barber and Taylor's Teachers Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Spence. They are all very wonderful. The reports that we got about both boys were fabulous! Spencer is thriving in Kindergarten. He is socializing with the other children and is keeping up with them academically. He still has some problems in the cognitive area, but Mrs. Barber told us that with a bit of prodding he does ok.

We met with Mrs. Kennedy next. She is Taylor's Life Skills teacher. (special ed) She told us that Taylor was a little charmer and she enjoys him very much. She is teaching him how to read and they are doing math. They are also doing a special program to help his cognitive abilities. I am very impressed with the progress that I am seeing. He goes over to Mrs. Spence's class (mainstream kindergarten) with an aid for about 1/2 an hour a day. They will work him into more time as he improves.

One thing that is super cool is that the way that Mrs. Barber and Mrs. Spence' classes are set up is there is no wall between them. After Taylor has done his centers his reward is to see Spencer.

All in all I sit here today once again in awe at the care that the Lord has bestowed upon our family. He has brought the perfect people along to help us along the next leg of this journey. I wanted the kids up at Fishback, but this is the perfect place for the boys for this year. They have teachers that care about them and are willing to work with us in order to help the boys reach their greatest potential.

"LIFE ISN'T ABOUT WAITING FOR THE STORM TO END; IT'S ABOUT LEARNING TO DANCE IN THE RAIN."

I found this quote on one of the Autism blogs that I read. Well, our storm is calming down. We had a good week last week. The boys started school and have been doing a great job. Addi has quit screaming and our house has more peace than it does chaos.

I have hit my 3rd trimester. As of Friday I have 10 weeks to go. (12 if we are being truly realistic). Darrin and I have succeeded in getting the entertainment center cleared out and most of the DVDs and CDs locked up so that the mess is minimal. The book shelves are next.

I can not believe that it is mid August. Time is flying and there is still so much to do. We did take the kids to the State Fair last Friday night. A good time was had by all. I was totally exhausted when we got home. We also took the kids to the church outing on Saturday. This was the first time that we were able to sit like real parents and watch our kids from afar. It was a wonderful evening. We stayed till the end. This is the first time that we have ever done this.

I am still planning on having a celebration for all that has been given to us over the past year. The boys and Addi's recovery has gone much faster than anticipated and we want to thank all of our friends for the encouragement and support as we took this journey.

I am hoping to do this in the next few weeks. It should be a great time of celebration. I will post the details here in addition to sending or handing out invitations.

Hope all of you can make it.

A Blessed Day

Today the boys turn 6. I can not believe that it has been 6 years. BTW, Happy Anniversary to Kevin and Amy Koons on Sunday. It will be 6 years for them also. (they were married 2 days after the boys were born)
We are going to have a slow day today. Family is coming over tonight. I am making them a cake today that is not on their diet. It is their birthday after all and an almond cake did not appeal to me. I got a glutton free chocolate cake mix at Meijer. It is the only thing that will have any type of refined sugar in it. Oh well, we will double up on their meds. :)

My computer is up and running again. I have been using Darrin's computer for the past 10 months. Darrin was able to recover all of my files except 3. He did an amazing job! Thanks Sweetie!!!!

So this is my first post on my wonderful computer. I am so happy to have it back!
I am going a bit off of the boys diet today. Not too far off the beaten path, I have already started them on corn.

For breakfast they had:
Fried Corn Mush
Fruit juice sweetened Strawberry Yogurt
Bacon

For lunch I am trying my hand at
Macaroni and cheese with smoked sausage.
I am going to use a corn /quenoa pasta
for the cheese sauce I am going to use cream cheese as my base and add a bit of milk, Jack and Colby cheeses. I will let you know how it comes out.

For dinner:
Corn Spaghetti pasta with homemade sauce
Salad
Green beans
Cake for dessert

It has been fun to cook things other than bacon, meat and veggies. We will see how the kids do with this food. I may incorporate more corn pasta into their everyday meals.

Here are the boys in the outfits sent by Aunt Mary for their birthday



They will be getting scooters tonight. We may regret it, we shall see. I will post some more pictures tomorrow. I am learning how to use my camera, so I will keep on trying to get some good pictures esp for Mary since we are missing her today.